I value cumulative progress particularly in terms of high quality, reliable, overwhelming, objective evidence. It is from that foundation that I develop a sense of meaning within the illusion of consciousness/time. This is whilst knowing consciousness is an illusion. Consciousness is the universe experiencing itself. All of it completely pre-determined. The future is already "there." It already "happened." It's already "happening." There is no "universal now." There is no "main character." There is one universe. Randomness and probability is an illusion of the human condition. The human condition is profoundly limited (and this varies widely).
The self is an illusion. "I," the universe experiencing itself, from this "Ryan" and "rgessays" coordinate, am far more aligned with intellectual honesty than the average person. I say that without ego or pride. I actually find it to be profoundly unfortunate (and arbitrary) that existential clarity is pre-determined by countless variables of which have nothing to do with free will (ie. nature/nurture, symptoms of the laws of physics/entropy.. evolution, biology, genetics, environment, iq, eq, etcetera).
The laws of physics are blind. Unfortunately. Unethical and immoral. But there's no one to blame. There's no creator. No actualizer who actualized it. Beginnings and endings are an illusion.
My heart breaks for all conscious beings who suffer. And all those conscious beings are "you" and "I," the universe experiencing itself.
To help understand this deeply, I made a Tella video explaining existence here: Existence Explained: Time is an illusion.
Read: Cognitive Biases